jig bite was great. could use advice on trolling

[endangeredspecies]

Went out Monday between 10am-2pm. Very close to shore. 12-15 ft water. Put 5 in the boat and probably lost 15 more (still had a blast). Purple, purple/green, green/yellow all getting hits. Wanted to try trolling but have very limited knowledge. I have a box full of reef runners and another full of husky jerks collecting dust! Anyone wanna give me the rundown?

[nate]

Kicker motor, Planer boards, trolling rods with line counters, trolling bible. If you have that stuff then you should be ready to go. The rest is trial and error.

[skipper9]

Went out Monday between 10am-2pm. Very close to shore. 12-15 ft water. Put 5 in the boat and probably lost 15 more (still had a blast). Purple, purple/green, green/yellow all getting hits. Wanted to try trolling but have very limited knowledge. I have a box full of reef runners and another full of husky jerks collecting dust! Anyone wanna give me the rundown?

Give me a call i would love to talk trolling.. jim 614.327.7144

[sherman51]

this is the time of yr to be trolling those rr and hj's for eyes. start out slow and run short leads. 0.8 to 1.5 and leads from about 80' to 100'. as the water warms and the fish move deeper you'll want longer leads or inline or snap on weights to get you deeper. but only after the fish move to running deeper. try 0.8 to 1.5 this time of yr. then when the water temp reaches about 45 you can switch to harnesses and try about 1.3 to 1.8. when the water really warms up I run from 1.8 to 2.0.

[endangeredspecies]

Thanks Jim. I will give you a ring before this weekend.

I have a 50hp merc. Does that constitute as a kicker or would i have to go smaller? Would my minn kota get me up to the correct speed? I need to buy planing boards, counter reels, and where would i find a trolling bible?

I need to run inline sinkers with the rr's and ddhj's? Thats new to me....i assumed they dove to the correct depth depending on how much line you let out.

[eyesnperch]

Depending on the size of your boat and the thrust of the minn kota yes it should work for trolling. I have a tracker targa 18 with a 101 36v on the bow and troll with it all year as fast as 2.5 with harnesses. The advantage of the inline weights is reaching the target depth with less line out versus just the rr or dhj. I can attest to Capt. Jim giving you some of the best info out there as he is the one that hepled me get started, definitly talk to him.

[Jawbreaker]

Thanks Jim. I will give you a ring before this weekend.

I have a 50hp merc. Does that constitute as a kicker or would i have to go smaller? Would my minn kota get me up to the correct speed? I need to buy planing boards, counter reels, and where would i find a trolling bible?

I need to run inline sinkers with the rr's and ddhj's? Thats new to me....i assumed they dove to the correct depth depending on how much line you let out.

Your 50 hp will get down plenty slow enough. At idle you'll be below 1mph. The baits will dive plenty deep on their own with long enough lines. Some of the other threads on here are mentioning the baits and length of line they're doing well on. Don't make it too complicated. Capt. Jim will give you all you need to know. I fished with him last year and I was amazed at how helpful he was with all my questions.